EMC Ups The Backup Ante

EMC has improved the data recovery utilities in its Legato NetWorker and Dantz Retrospect software in an effort to gain market share against rivals in backup software.

Designed to protect heavier data loads in enterprises, NetWorker 7.2 integrates with more applications and includes new features for backing up to disk.

NetWorker features a new Windows client administration graphical user interface (GUI), as well as better installation and tools for device configuration, said Rob Emsley, director of product marketing software for EMC.

Prices on systems to back up data to disk are falling, paving the way for storage vendors like EMC, Veritas and IBM to sell faster backup to customers.

EMC is taking advantage of the trend in NetWorker, which now relies on the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) to clone and stage data to or from disk. In the past, NDMP back-up could only be performed to or from tape. The new disk back-up tools lend greater speed and reliability for storage on NAS devices, Emsley said.

NetWorker supports a full range of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Sun's Solaris and Linux from Red Hat and SuSe Linux.

Emsley said NetWorker will also now support the Hopkinton, Mass., company's Documentum enterprise content management systems. Increased support for EMC's VMware server virtualization software is also on tap, as NetWorker 7.2 provides granular backup and recovery of all files within the virtual machines for VMware GSX Server and VMware ESX Server.

NetWorker competes directly with rival Veritas' NetBackup product for protecting enterprise data. Though in the process of being acquired by Symantec, Veritas is widely acknowledged as the leader in backup software, with more than 50 percent of the market.

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EMC has never been bashful about its attempt to grab market share from its chief rival in data backup, but Symantec's acquisition bid has made the company even more aggressive. EMC is currently launching a program to help customers migrate from Veritas to its own solutions.

While backing up and securing data is no less important for SMBs, research firm IDC said only about 40 percent of them back up data on a consistent basis.

Dunmire said the Dantz group, acquired by EMC last October, has added new disk-to-disk-to-tape capabilities to enable backup to disk for fast restores and automated transfers to tape. The new software also offers full synthetic backups and ensures that backups do not exceed disk capacity.

Retrospect 7 is available now in the following flavors and starting prices; Multi Server, $1299; Single Server, $699; Small Business Server, $499; Disk-to-Disk, $299; Professional, $129; and Disk-to-Disk, $299.